Sixty doctors working at the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences have resigned en masse, citing insecurity. There are 100 doctors currently employed at the Academy.

The agitating doctors wrote a letter to Dr Mangal Rawal, the vice-chancellor of the Academy, on Wednesday and announced their group resignation. The letter was also CC’d to the district administration. They halted all the health services at the Academy except emergency ones.

“The attack on Dr Karan Sah, a medical officer working at the Academy’s emergency unit, and the situation in the aftermath is quite fearful. We are compelled to resign,” reads the letter submitted to Rawal. The agitating health workers claimed attempts were made to frame Shah by filing false accusations against him. They also expressed their concerns that some local residents had attempted to create a confrontation.

On August 18, Dhan Bahadur Shahi, an administrative employee at the Academy, attacked Dr Sah while the latter was working in the emergency unit. CCTV footage shows Shahi punching and kicking Sah for ignoring the treatment of his six-year-old son Prithak Bikram Shahi.

The Academy suspended Shahi for 45 days. An investigation is underway by forming a three-member probe led by the Academy’s director Dr Pujan Rokaya.

The boy’s mother, Aasha Hamal also lodged a complaint at the District Police Office in Jumla on August 29 stating that Dr Sah meted out violence against the child during his treatment. Following the complaint, the Jumla district court also issued an arrest warrant against Sah.